Communication via wide area networks (“WANS”), such as, for example, through the Internet, has become an increasingly common manner of communication world wide. Additionally, because of the millions of persons using electronic mail (“E-mail”) or the World Wide Web (“WWW”), wide area computer networks, have become a very useful tool for inexpensively marketing and advertising goods and services. As such, it is highly desirable for many persons and companies to make messages, such as advertisements, available to persons using WANS. As a result of the efforts of such persons and companies, users of Internet-based electronic mail or the WWW are inundated with a huge and steadily increasing amount of information.
Some of the information provided by persons and companies attempting to attract the attention of Internet users employ the transmissions of mass unsolicited e-mail or “spam” sent to large numbers of persons using the Internet. This practice has become increasingly problematic as it consumes limited Internet bandwidth and server resources of Internet Service Providers (“ISP”). It is also often undesired by the recipient. In fact, concerns over the use of unsolicited E-mail as a means of advertising has resulted in the passage of may laws restricting the transmission of mass unsolicited E-mail. Persons and companies desiring the attention of persons using the Internet must, therefore, confront the increasingly difficult task of effectively, unobtrusively and legally drawing Internet user's attention to their message, such as an advertisement, amid the flood of Internet information.
One popular means of transmitting information on the WWW is via web sites, comprised of one or more web pages using hypertext markup language (“HTML”). In most instances, in addition to the textual, graphic, and/or audio data presented on each page, additional data is embedded into each page via hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a means by which a user can be quickly directed to another web site, web page or other file containing information by the downloading of such information in response to the user's execution of the command embedded in the hyperlink.
A hyperlink can be presented to a user as a work, a graphic, sound, audiovisual or similar matter displayed via a web browser such as Netscape, Internet Explorer or similar graphic user interface. Typically, the hyperlinks found on a web page are created at the time that the web page is created such that the web page is presented to the user including the hyperlinks. If additional hyperlinks are later desired, the person managing the web page must return to the web page to insert the later desired link. If multiple web pages require the newly desired link, a hyperlink must be created on each page for the link to work for that page. This manner of creating and updating hyperlinks on individual web pages is time consuming and further, can be ineffective as the person updating the pages may not update all the relevant pages or sites. A need in the industry exists for automatically generating a link means and updating the presentation of web sites, or web pages, to users with such updated link means. Additionally, a need in the industry exists for persons and companies to automatically present to persons using wide area computer networks, such as the Internet, a linking means to messages such as advertisements.